april

April was a good and very, very, very busy month. I feel gobs better now that it is over.

Some of the highlights included:

• We kept the Kozel kids one weekend. That was fun, but apparently our house and neighborhood are garbage so we spent a large chunk of time at their house while their parents were gone. Whatever, man.
• I went on Ted's 5th grade field trip to the Pittsburgh Science Center. Aside from the bus ride, it was actually very enjoyable. I had a group of five 5th grade boys that I enjoyed very much. Ted actually asked me to come, which I decided to take full advantage of understanding he may not do that much longer.
• We had a 6 day Spring Break around Easter. It really snuck up on me and I freaked out a little. So the kids went to New Martinsville for Thursday-Saturday. Ben and I worked, went out to dinner, went to a Good Friday Service, stayed up late and slept in. We did an entire day worth of yard work. I really love when we are home without the kids and just do life. We went an entire day without having to make anyone food or referee any fights. It was great!
• The weather was beautiful for Spring Break which included two days playing with the Kozels. The kids got new bikes for Easter so we spent some time on the (muddy) rail trail and playing outside.
• Mountaineer Area hosted it's first ever 5K. A lot of work this year, but way less work in years to come. On a cold, rainy Saturday PEOPLE ACTUALLY SHOWED UP! I was shocked. It was great. We learned a lot. We raised a lot of money for buses and scholarships to camp this summer. We did something I've been wanting to do for years. I'm proud of our committee for really leading the charge. Next year will be a piece of cake!
• Baseball season started. Ted is on a team of a lot of 6th graders. He's usually right around the middle of a team skill-wise. But this year is towards the bottom. He's learning a lot. He has a neat team and a great coach. We love baseball season although the rain has been a real bummer with a lot of cancelled games.
• Ben and I celebrated 17 YEARS OF MARRIAGE. What the heck? Seems like a lifetime and the blink of an eye at the same time. How can that be? Seventeen years. 884 weeks.  6,205 days (plus a few for leap years). We celebrated with baseball opening day, some sushi, and watching a Penguins game with the Kozels.  The goal is to hit a Pirates game sometime in May.
• Ben had clubble with MHS & UHS on a hot night. And the follow week paint wars (paint in water bottles) on a cold night. Oops! Either way, fun was had by all.
• We had senior night/new leader night with our three seniors and a new batch of leaders.
• Sophie got her orange belt in TaeKwonDo. She loves it. I'm glad she does. It's just a little pricey for my liking with lots of "extras." Not sure how long we can do that.
• I took a roadtrip with a friend to Charleston one day. Sometimes our friends are just going through tough stuff and really just need someone to ride along with them.

Some pictures for the month:

When we had the Kozels, I thought it would be fun to go to the WVU baseball game. Especially since all the kids got in for free. It was fun for the girls for about 10 minutes. I remember this from last year. Noted for future reference.

Lily pretty much said it all.

Sophie got her orange belt. This was when she got home the night she got her new belt. Ben had taken her to class and I happened to be putting things away when she got home. She was so excited!! (There's a video here in case it's just white space. Click for it to play.)

Ted ran the 5K with some of the WyldLife leaders and kids. He seriously got in line and ran. His legs were struggling for about two days after wards. He thought he was dying!

My friend Kaitlyn crossing the finish line with 3 of her 4 children. Her husband has the 4th behind her. I love them and this picture!

Sophie ran/walked with Abby. They were so sweet together. Also very proud of Sophie for finishing. A friend definitely helped.

After the 5K we came came home and slept for 3 hours. This is what I woke up to. I wish all of our events were in the morning instead of the evenings.

I took Ted and 5 of his buddies to the WyldLife move up club. How in the world do I have a kid going to 6th grade next year? This was a very surreal moment.

We hit up a different part of the rail trail with the Kozels on our last day of spring break. After adventures with tire pumps, lunch and forgotten shoes. It was a fun day!

These two. Seriously. They will push each other and their babies around all day in this stroller. This picture makes me laugh so hard every time I see it. Lily is such a trooper.

I thought it would be fun to play umpire for them. Bad idea. They need to be left to their own devices instead of having parents around.

We had the healthiest winter EVER! Until Ted got poison ivy, strep throat and pink eye all within 7 days. But that's nothing, really. This poison ivy was from that nice waterfall picture above. My parents found this great new stuff they used for my dad's leg when he was getting radiation treatments. Easiest case of poison ivy we've ever had (and Ted's tends to hang around until he gets steroids.) He had to put it on his legs for awhile so it made for good trumpet practice.

The kids got to hang with Reed while they were in NM.

And got to see Trey play a baseball game.

I put in an entire day of digging up my gardens. Still need to add new soil to one. And then start the gardens around the side of the house.

This is my only Easter picture. Oops! After church, the kids filled their own eggs with candy and then we hid them around the yard. (Don't feel bad for them. They got baskets from our parents and bikes from us.) I think it's funny that they still love to hide eggs in the yard.

After a nice Easter dinner of hamburgers, we played roulette with these jelly beans - spoiled milk, rotten egg, booger, barf, stinky socks, dead fish, toothpaste, canned dog food, moldy cheese and lawn clippings. I have no idea how they make these, but it's impressive and incredibly GROSS!

The Science Center

Sophie and her volcano at school. (Funny story: She wore this to school and I didn't realize until after she got home when I touched it that she had actually worn a nightgown to school!)

Ted did a wax museum project at school. He researched, did a report on and dressed up as some war guy from some war. (You can see how much attention I actually gave to this.)

Ben was trying to make him smile! Ted did not appreciate this at all.

The making of the wax museum outfit the night before. I am a TERRIBLE project parent. Terrible.

At the end of April, my work to do list looked like this. It was the first time in months that my to do list didn't want to make me cry. (To be fair, I have about 10 lists on my phone. This is just my most urgent list and this happened to be on a Friday which was glorious!)

 

April was beautiful, warm and rainy. We opened the windows in the house, watched the trees and flowers bloom and caught a glimpse of spring. I started working on the back deck in the afternoons. This time of year is good for my soul.